A blog for members of Westbury Baptist Church, people who want to know more about our ministry, or people who just want to chat.

Friday, June 14, 2013

Real-World Holiness

Many American manufacturers are going to great lengths to protect themselves from getting sued. As a result, many companies now include stunningly obvious warnings about their product. Every year the Wacky Warning Labels Contest selects what it calls "the most absurd and silly warning labels attached to everyday products."

Here were the winners for the 2012 contest:

The Grand Prize Winner was for a 7-inch decorative globe with the following warning label: "These globes should not be referred for navigation."

The Second Prize Winner was for an electric razor for men with the following warning label: "Never use while sleeping."

Past winners have included the following warning labels:

"Remove child before folding"—a warning label on a baby stroller

"Does not supply oxygen"—a label on a common dust mask (2011 Contest Winner)

Rules are a part of life. Unfortunately, people think they can reduce the Christian faith to a list of rules: "Do this. Don't do that. Don't eat that. Don't watch that. Don't associate with them." But that's not holiness; it's legalism.

Ironically,
legalism turns out to be much easier than true holiness.Anyone who is sufficiently motivated can
follow a list of rules.But it takes the
power of God to be loving, kind, forgiving, humble, patient, and joyful.The people who conspired to kill Jesus were
very good at following rules, but they weren’t holy.Jesus followed the commands of Scripture to
the letter, but He had something more.So if we want to become the people God created us to be; if we want to
live in a way that is distinct and compelling, that draws other people to God,
then the answer is NOT to simply set up a list of rules and try really hard to
follow them.That has traditionally been
the way religion teaches a person to be holy, but it doesn’t work.Paul talks about this in the last verse of Colossians
2: Such regulations indeed have an
appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and
their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining
sensual indulgence.In other words, if you try hard enough to follow rules, you might
succeed in looking a little more moral.But you’ll still be the same person on the inside.

Frankly,
this is one reason why Christians get so discouraged.They say, “I was so excited when I accepted
Christ.I really thought I was going to
be a new person.But I still get angry
and hurt people when I fly off the handle.I still have these selfish, lustful thoughts that I’d die if anyone
found out about.I still can’t bring
myself to forgive that person who hurt me all those years ago.And I still sometimes get disappointed with
God for not giving me the life I wanted.I go to church and I’ve learned not to cuss, so it may look like I’m
living the Christian life.But it only
looks that way.”Fortunately, God’s
response to those who resonate with what I just said is NOT “Try harder.”Instead, in Colossians 3 He offers us a process
of how to grow into the holy character we all long for.As you read this chapter, don’t look
at it as a list of rules.Instead, it’s
a compelling vision of what holiness looks like in the real world.It really boils down to a three-step process, one we'll explore in our sermon this Sunday.